S.J.P. Kruger and the Transvaal hardliners on race policies and practices in the early 1870s

The hardline and moderate approaches with regard to race relations in the Transvaal (South Africa) in the 1870s manifested themselves in various arenas of interaction between white settlers and Africans. This paper discusses labour relations in this period, as well as attitudes to land and to Africans in the context of a transforming political and economic situation, paying particular attention to the role of Commandant-General S.J.P. Kruger. The paper argues that the regional, political and economic context contributed to the different approaches of hardliners and moderates. Hardliners were, for example, more prominent owners of land and were to a larger degree dependent on the availability of African labour than moderates. S.J.P. Kruger was a substantial owner of land with extensive agricultural production and it seems that at least one historian is of the opinion that he should be regarded as a hardliner. However, this article argues that Kruger’s attitudes and activities were different from those of the hardliners: Kruger’s relationships with African communities and his African labourers were paternalistic. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]